Vision Therapy

[SeekingSimplicity]

Anybody know how much it cost? Does your insurance cover it?

 

We haven't been able to get it for dd because the only one around is on the other end of the state and doesn't accept insurance or medicaid or anything. I found one close to home and called today, and they wont accept our insurance either. I didn't ask how much it cost, they're supposed to call me back tomorrow to talk about it more in depth. I really doubt we'll be able to afford it though.

[wapiti]

I think it varies a bit depending on geographic location.

 

We paid around $2500 (give or take; I can't remember exactly) for 24 weekly visits with the vision therapist plus it included occasional progress checks with the optometrist. That was over two yrs ago.

[bluedarling]

It does vary by location/VT office.

Our first VT doc did the therapy himself, and required 18 weeks of therapy. It was $3000, and insurance didn't pay. (5 years ago in FL.)

 

Our current VT doc does not do the therapy himself, but with a person with no training other than what he's trained her to do (but she's very very good.) He said that my son's previous 18 weeks, which was mostly ineffective, simply wasn't long enough to do any long-term good. It did improve his tracking, but that was all. The program in their offices is about a year long, with weekly therapy visits (including Interactive Metronome), and only occasional checkups (maybe quarterly) with the Dr. The cost was similar (other than insurance paid, and you got a LOT more visits for the money.) We are in WA, now.

--Deidre

[Twinmom]

We did sports VT and paid nearly $6,000, with the gas to travel 3 hrs round trip, 3x a week at $4.00 a gallon included. It was nuts! Probably the VT itself was around $5,000, but I didn't really keep track due to the skyrocketing gas cost! No insurance coverage except for the initial eval. VERY painful but all worth it in the end. She reads very well now!

 

(And, yes, we're still paying it off.)

Edited April 14, 2010 by Twinmom

[sevknorr]

we are from mn and i agree with the cost as stated above. i have been praying and thinking about it for many years as treatment results vary. It is helping ds tremendously. ours did free testing and eval. it is quite interesting but if you are married, i suggest that you AND your dh go to the eval so you both can see that they are testing for and the results-then both would be on board. i do not work outside the home but knowing what i do now i would do just about anything creative to raise the money and go for it. here is the site where we go. they have great links and resources. i hope this helps

http://www.minnesotavisiontherapy.com/

i guess the mayo clinic just finished a study that confirmed it usefulness. i hope the insurance will soon cover it.

 

obtw, my son is 13 was labeled adhd inattentive type significant visual and auditory processing problems. great difficulty in reading.

[elise1mds]

Some advice I have been given in the past: Call your insurance company. Tell them the story. If they cover vision therapy on your plan, then they should cover something within a reasonable geographic area. If they don't, ask why. Be a squeaky wheel until you get something covered that's not hours and hours away. It's unreasonable for them to tell you that you have to drive across your entire state (well, unless you live in Rhode Island maybe) to get help for a medical condition that your child NEEDS treatment for.

 

To some degree, I feel your pain. I would love to get OT for my son, but the nearest facility that they cover is an hour away and with DD in school, I just don't have time to make that drive.

 

(((HUGS)))

[crl]

Wow! Thanks for the info. Now I need to get DH on board.

[Laurie4b]

We've done vision therapy because, though it hurt $$, we did have the means to afford it, because a grandparent helped out. It was a choice to "cover all the bases" made with the full knowledge that vision therapy lacks scientific validity and is considered snake oil by most other professionals. However, with what was wrong with my ds (ld in visual-spatial processing), there really aren't scientifically valid approaches, either.

 

Ds started with horrible tracking--truly horrible and had no ability to keep his eyes focused for more than 1-2 seconds. (The regular optometrist couldn't get a look at his retina, for instance.) That was mostly addressed by OT. (He could focus normally by the end and his tracking was "almost normal though I can see he is having to work at it" according to the optometrist.) The OT did not focus on vision but mainly on vestibular functioning, getting more proprioceptive input, etc.

 

Ds skipped words and often lines prior to vision therapy .... and still does, though he supposedly had excellent test results when we finished on a bunch of optometric tests.

His score on the Beery test of Visual Motor Integration did improve by the end of vision therapy; however, we also used Brainware Safari during that time and it had a clear effect.

 

Soooo. I would make sure if you choose vision therapy that you go into it with a realistic mindset. Some parents feel that it has been the magic bullet, and that's enough for me to think there is something there; however, we really don't know what it is that is there that works, let alone which kids it truly works for and which it doesn't. You will definitely spend big $$. There may be a more conventional therapy that gets you where you need to go.

[stripe]

Definitely find out the cost before ruling it out.